Colorado State Budget Deficit

Colorado has a budget shortfall of at least $600 million for 2009-2010 and perhaps as much as $1.5 Billion in 2010-2011! The Democrats' answer: raise fees and tax you more. Here are some ways to spend less; this list will be updated during the Legislative session.

• Require that each state agency analyze its functions and determine which can be contracted out to private industry with a resulting decrease in state full-time employees• Freeze all advertising and promotional materials by government agencies and schools• Freeze all future salary increases• Reduce government salaries to no more than those in the private sector• Review all pre-school programs and eliminate redundancy• Allow Universities to set tuition levels to better reflect their budget needs• Eliminate tenure for university professors• Reduce Medicaid program eligibility to 100% of Federal Poverty Level• Require stricter criteria to enroll more Medicaid recipients• Require larger Medicaid co-payments for each office call• Eliminate all or a number of the ten Medicaid-optional programs• Don't provide benefits to people in the country illegally• Replace all employee furlough programs and reduce the number of full time employees• Cease telephone subsidies for welfare recipients• Cut funding for programs for special interest groups• Sell all remaining projected cash flow from the Tobacco Settlement Fund

In addition to spending less, the best way to fix the budget is to stop putting burdens on small businesses that create jobs.